Wednesday, December 03, 2008

That being said, reactions from Marty Turco, Mike Modano, Brad Richards and Mike Ribeiro do show that this Sean Avery experiment isn't exactly going well. We're only in December and the team is already clearly tired of hearing about Avery (and his gorgeous, cleft-chinned ex-gfs).

Obviously, Avery needs father figures and/or players who obviously wear the pants so he'll tow the line. In Detroit, he was just some annoying gnat of an undrafted free agent in a locker room full of larger than life personalities. After that, he's been in big markets where hockey isn't exactly the main event (LA, New York and Dallas) so he could cultivate his bad boy image without the necessary "But he's actually not all that productive" backlash.

It keeps feeding that gluttonous Avery ego and don't expect it to stop anytime soon.

Avery was a great fit in Detroit, and I've said this so many times... With Detroit, Avery could be the pest (and he did a HELL of a job of it), draw penalties, and even score a few goals. The thing was, on a such an amazingly deep and talented roster, Avery was not GUARANTEED a roster spot. Thus, and this actually did happen sometimes, if Avery took dumb penalties or whatever, he would get benched. He was kept in check by a team that was good enough that they could say "we don't need you this bad" and sit him, and not be any worse for it.

When he went to LA, if you were gonna bench him, who were you gonna pull up instead to fill that roster spot? RudyKelly? Sitting Avery for those teams would mean sitting one of the better forwards you had, without anything to replace him, and at the same time, giving him one of the two largest mouthpieces in the country to piss and moan about it from.

The Stars were stupid to think that they could create the same environment that allowed Avery to work as a Red Wing. First of all, Sean Avery had already become THE SEAN AVERY EXPERIENCE. Once you uncork the monster, you can't put it back. Secondly, Dallas isn't that good!!! Sure, no one could see this absolute collapse coming, and particularly Turco's play of late has been a surprise. But frakly, the Stars aren't good enough. Those Wings teams with Avery had SIX Hall of Famers at Forward positions alone, and thats not counting Datsyuk, who may become a HoF'er. In fact, you know who is conspicuously absent from the 01-02 Wings roster, while Sean Avery is on it? Henrik Zetterberg!!! That's how good those Wings teams were. The Stars are nowhere even close to that good.

I wish the Avs had signed Avery. First, I live in Denver now, so I'd at least find myself significantly more entertained by the local awful hockey team. Second, it would help add a little to the Wings/Avs rivalry.

Good comment, Joe, and sorry I stole some thunder with my post, O'Brien, but I do believe that Avery would have worked out well for Dallas last year or the year before -- they used to have tons of forward depth with their Finns -- Jokinen, Kapanen, Hagman, Miettinen -- but it's been thinned out rather quickly and replaced with high hopes for Avery and Brunnstrom.

We'll see, perhaps the Stars can recover (Parrish was a good fill-in), but you have to think that one of the biggest factors in this Avery-gate is actually Dallas' place in the standings. Had the Stars been winning this year, I don't know what the league would have done, but I think the Dallas lockerroom has been looking for a scapegoat for their poor start, and Avery's too conveniently-placed.

As for Avery, I'd take him in Anaheim for about half his salary (and maybe he only gets moved through re-entry waivers), but the Ducks can't even afford that right now.